


Twenty-Four Days at Pemberley

by elspunko



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:05:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/656874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elspunko/pseuds/elspunko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty-four random days during Lizzie's time at Pemberley Digital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twenty-Four Days at Pemberley

**Author's Note:**

> This was written after episode 82, so forgive me if this quickly becomes obsolete. It was written for my friend Jenn's 24th birthday, and then I decided to post it elsewhere so, you know, I could get more feedback other than my best friend's. I hope you enjoy!

I.

Five seconds into a phone call from Charlotte ( _“Lizzie oh my God do you realize whose company that is?!”_ ) and Lizzie’s completely lost her enthusiasm to visit Pemberley Digital.

But, of course, it’s all set up, and she can’t flake out on Dr. Gardiner (though not for lack of trying). And after spending an hour on the website and learning everything the internet can possibly tell her about Pemberley Digital, it doesn’t actually seem like a terrible place to work.

And the people are nice. She learns that within her first hour of work, when her very enthusiastic tour guide can barely remember to stop asking Lizzie about her degree long enough to actually, you know, give a tour of the grounds. 

And, yeah. She’ll admit it. Lizzie’s a little scared. The threat of Darcy lurks behind every corner. And with Darcy comes the terrible memories and shame of the way she treated him, and how harshly she had judged him. But even if this wasn’t Darcy’s company, she’d still be intimidated by Pemberley. It’s so…official. And, yeah, she spent a few months at Collins & Collins, which is certainly just as legitimate as Pemberley. But she had a safety net at Collins & Collins. Her best friend was always just a few feet away.

But here? San Francisco? Charlotte is far away, and Jane’s even farther. And Lydia…Well, her youngest sister feels distant for reasons that have nothing to do with geography. Lizzie’s on her own for the first time, and for the first time in weeks, she hears Jane’s voice in her head.

_“I’m really worried about you being afraid to leave home.”_

It’s not that she’s afraid to leave home. Not really. It’s just…home is familiar. Her sisters and best friend are nearby. But away from home, in San Francisco, she’s all alone. And that wouldn’t be so scary if she had even one person she knew here (preferably a person who she didn’t humiliate in front of thousands of people).

So when she meets her tour guide, and when her tour guide reveals herself to be a fan, Lizzie’s thrilled. Since she’s been in the city, the only people she’s met have been – well – employees at Pemberley, most of whom are at least ten years her senior. But finally, there’s someone sweet, intelligent, and easy to talk to, and she’s actually the same age as Lizzie.

But even sweet, intelligent, and easy to talk to tour guides, no matter how age appropriate, don’t want to be friends with someone who has slandered her brother’s name. Oh well. Maybe friends are overrated.

 

II.

She hasn’t seen him in months. She hadn’t really planned on ever seeing him again, and she certainly hadn’t planned on seeing him today.

He didn’t seem completely surprised to see her. He’s known she’s there, after all. And maybe it was kind of nice to see that he’s been doing okay, that his life went on and he didn’t fade out of view as soon as she turned her back on him.

She doesn’t know why she felt so compelled to touch his arm. Maybe to tell him it was okay. That she was okay. Or so he would know simply that she was okay with him.

An hour after he leaves her makeshift office, she finds herself rubbing her fingers together, as if she’s preserving something sacred. Lizzie stops herself and curls her fingers into a ball.

 

III.

She used to think everything was so simple. A guy likes you? He’ll stay with you. That’s how love works, and that’s how things should be.

But with everything that’s happened since she started making her videos, with Bing and Wickham leaving unexpectedly, with Darcy weirdly intersecting her and Jane’s love lives, Lizzie’s not so sure of anything anymore. Once Fitz told her about Darcy’s interference, it had been so easy to hate him. Just one more thing to add to the ever-growing list of his flaws. But now…now she just doesn’t know what to do.

But meddling, she’s sure, can only make things worse, especially if she’s so unsure as to how she should proceed. And so, as she uploads the video, she makes a decision. Bing and Darcy – and anyone else she’s met over the last year whose lives overlap with her own - can all live their own lives. If they want to follow their friends’ bad advice, that’s their prerogative. Lizzie’s done interfering. She’s done acting like she knows best when, really, she’s no smarter than anyone else.

 

IV.

She doesn’t have to ask him if he still cares about her.

She already knows the answer’s no. It couldn’t possibly be anything else.

Er. She’s talking about Bing and Jane, obviously. There’s no one else she could be talking about.

(Still, when she goes to sleep that night, she can’t stop replaying the day’s events. The look in his eyes when he came back into the room with a bow tie and his Newsies cap stays with her for days. With one look, he told her he was in on the joke. _I know, and it’s okay._ )

 

V.

She doesn’t want to spend a day with Darcy. She really, _really_ doesn’t want to spend a day with Darcy.

But Gigi asks so sweetly, because Gigi does _everything_ so sweetly, and Lizzie’s in no position to turn down making friends. Even if one of those potential new friends is William Darcy. And Gigi’s been so helpful with the videos, and there’s that not-so-insignificant fact that Gigi even _wants_ to be friends with her, despite all the things Lizzie has said about Darcy.

It’s a painful moment when Lizzie realizes she has no choice but to spend an entire day exploring the city with Darcy. One day she’ll learn how to say no to Gigi.

 

VI.

Bing knows.

Well. Okay. He doesn’t know. But he kind of knows, and that’s scary enough. Lizzie could have said no when he asked, and pretended like she had no idea what he was talking about. But she kind of feels okay with the fact that he knows. She’s lied to him long enough about the videos, and it’s only fair, really. Everyone else in her life already knows that she’s been broadcasting their interactions on the internet for the past few months.

The real problem is that since she started these videos, Lizzie’s been unable to tell whether or not broadcasting everything is a good idea. Some days, like today, make her sure that it’s not. But she’s been wrong before.

 

VII.

Lizzie had this friend her first two years of college named Scott. He was a communications major, and they had met in a lit class freshman year. Over their two years of friendship, Scott became a semi-constant presence in the Bennet household. Jane always commented on how polite he was, and Lydia particularly enjoyed when he would visit. He liked them, too, and even helped Lydia study for the SATs – or so they claimed. Lizzie wasn’t stupid.

About a month or two into the spring semester of Lizzie’s sophomore year, Scott started seeing this girl. Lizzie can’t even remember her name now. But she informed her family over dinner one night. While her mother berated Lizzie for letting such a “sweet boy who cares about you so much” out of her grasp, Lydia dropped her fork and rose from the table, announcing she felt sick.

About an hour later, Jane knocked on Lizzie’s door and asked if she knew why Lydia was crying so much.

The next day, she told Scott that maybe it wasn’t a good idea for him to spend time around her house anymore. She thinks he translated that to mean he shouldn’t spend time around her anymore, and their friendship fizzled out over the next few weeks. 

She never missed him. She promised herself that she would never let anyone hurt her baby sister ever again. She doesn’t know why Gigi’s story about Wickham makes her think about that. 

 

VIII.

Her day with Gigi and Darcy is…weird. There’s no other way to describe it.

Unfortunately, she’s been getting tweets and comments for a week begging her to make a video about her day with them. Despite her inability to put the experience into words, her viewers are counting on her to do just that. So she spends most of Sunday afternoon writing a script for the video – something she rarely does, except for costume theatre. But there’s no way she can properly tell the story. She needs to write down her memories of wandering the streets and looking over the bay while they’re still fresh in her head.

When she gets to Pemberley on Monday, she sits down and films it right away. Her script is complete, save one very important aspect.

“You’ve all been going a little crazy this week,” Lizzie says, smirking at the camera in the way she’s perfected over the last few months. Okay, yeah, she totally practiced her camera smile in the mirror for a while. Shut up. “And I can see this is really important to you, for some reason. So.”

She takes a deep breath. “My name is Lizzie Bennet, and I went exploring.”

She frowns. No, that’s not right. This one line, this one tiny, tiny piece of the video, has been eluding her since the moment she sat down to start the script. She had hoped the perfect line would come to her while recording the intro, but she was still at a loss. The rest of the video is ready to go – barring interruption from a member of the Darcy family (or one of their friends), it will only take five minutes to film. But she can’t proceed without this one stupid line to set it all up.

She knows why it’s eluding her, but of course that doesn’t make the words any easier to arrange. She doesn’t want to admit the truth of her outing with the Darcy family- that she actually…had fun. The William Darcy who once called her “decent enough” was nowhere to be seen. The William Darcy on Saturday, who rattled off facts about the city and offered to pay her admission into museums and treat her to lunch, was someone Lizzie had never met.

She sighs, her hand hovering above her camera’s record button. She knows what her audience wants to hear, and for once when it comes to her audience’s opinions on Darcy…she actually agrees with them. She presses the button.

“My name is Lizzie Bennet, and…” She hesitates. “William Darcy might not actually be so bad.”

 

IX.

She hears his curt hello while she’s examining the fridge for something remotely edible. Marie from legal is married to a fisherman, apparently, and usually her various fish-themed sandwiches have been ruining everything that goes near them.

But when she hears Darcy’s voice, Lizzie straightens. “Darcy,” she says, forcing a smile. “Hi. How are you?”

“I’m doing well,” he says with a little bow. “And yourself?”

“No complaints,” she says. Then, as usual, an awkward silence falls over them. But it’s not quite as painful as it used to be. Maybe, Lizzie thinks, their day exploring the city did actually bring them closer, even if just a tiny bit.

“Did you have any plans for the afternoon?” Darcy asks suddenly, in that interested-but-detached way that he’s perfected.

“Uh, no,” Lizzie says, playing with the long chain of her necklace. “I was just gonna wander the halls until I found someone working on something interesting.”

Darcy’s mouth twitches. “I wanted to invite you to sit in on my conference call. I’m supposed to be wooing some potential new investor. I thought it might be of interest to you.”

“Well,” Lizzie hears herself saying, “if anyone could be an expert at wooing, it’d be you.”

She hates herself sometimes.

“I mean, yeah,” she says before he has time to react. “I’d definitely be interested in that. Thank you.”

He bows again in that way of his that would seem pretentious – and used to, before she got to know him – if it weren’t so endearing. “It’s my pleasure. Come to my office at about 2:30.”

Lizzie thanks him again, then backs out of the room before she has another opportunity to embarrass herself. Over her last few weeks at Pemberley, she’s managed to sit in on quite a few of the company’s operational meetings. But Darcy’s never been the one to invite her. Now, with his invitation, she can’t help but feel like he’s actually embracing her as a temporary part of the company.

Instinctively, Lizzie glances over her shoulder as she turns the corner toward her makeshift office. Through the glass walls of the break room, she can see Darcy pouring himself a cup of coffee. He turns as he takes a sip, resting his hip against the counter. Their eyes fall on each other’s as he lowers his cup. Darcy smiles softly, but doesn’t move toward her. Lizzie shivers.

 

X.

Fitz is in town.

Normally that would be a wonderful thing, but Lizzie’s seen what her new friend’s been tweeting Gigi over the last few weeks, and she’s sure that, with his presence, Gigi’s attempts at matchmaking will only get worse. She’s expecting the four of them to make plans, just for Gigi and Fitz to suddenly announce at the last minute that they can’t make it, but why don’t Lizzie and Darcy go ahead without them?

Fitz greets her with a huge hug, as expected. He asks her how she’s been enjoying Pemberley, and how her sisters are, and how her videos are going, as expected. And then, finally, he asks about Darcy. As expected.

“So listen,” he tells her while she shows him her latest video (in which she and Gigi reenact Lizzie’s run-in with Lois Clearby, who stopped by eight times in an hour to ask Lizzie how to send an email). “I know you’re still adjusting to the city, and everything. And I know you went exploring with Gigi and Darcy, but, come on. They don’t know all the cool places to go.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lizzie says. “We had fun.”

Fitz rolls his eyes. “No, you _think_ you had fun. You want to have some real fun, let me take you out to lunch, and I’ll show you a few things.”

Lizzie sighs dramatically. “All right. If I must.” Fitz grins at her. Okay. That was unexpected…

But not unpleasant, she thinks as Fitz jumps up from his chair and announces that he’s bored. The next thing she knows, she’s chasing him around the hallway with a pretend gun made out of duct tape and paper, and she can’t believe she had ever distrusted Fitz.

 

XI.

Lizzie frowns. That can’t be right. That can’t possibly be right.

She refreshes the page, but when it reloads, the numbers are the same. Her videos have all been getting an impressive number of views, but by far, her most popular are the four that feature William Darcy.

And then, because he seems to materialize whenever she thinks about him, Darcy knocks on the door.

“Lizzie,” he greets her. “Gigi sent me to inquire as to whether or not you’ll be joining us for lunch today.”

“Uh.” She glances at her computer for a moment, clicking over to a new tab. “Yeah, of course. Can’t wait.”

Darcy takes an instinctive step backwards. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you filming? I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“No, it’s fine,” Lizzie says, smiling despite herself. “I’m not filming. And besides, it’s your company. You couldn’t possibly be an intrusion.”

Darcy chuckles, stepping back into the room. “I have a little sister who would disagree with that statement.”

“True,” she says. “But then again, little sisters are always biased.” She looks back at her computer, unable to keep her mind off what she saw.

“Hey, can I show you something?” She switches back to the tab she had been studying so intently. Darcy moves next to her, placing a hand on the table as he leans over to glance at her screen. Lizzie tries not to notice.

“Are these the statistics for your video?” he asks. It takes Lizzie a moment to process what he asked.

“Yeah, yeah, they are,” she says, swallowing. “Um. So here, it lists my top videos, and you can see my monthly views.” She drags her finger down the page. “Five of my ten most watched videos are all about you.”

“Really.” Darcy leans closer to study the numbers, then pulls back. “Well. I’m happy to have played a part, however small it may be, in making you a YouTube sensation.”

“That’s not a small part,” Lizzie says, gesturing to the numbers. “My viewers seem to love you. I wonder why you’re so popular.”

She glances at him quickly. “Not that – I mean –“

“I understand,” he says, one side of his mouth turning upwards. “I have no idea why those videos are so popular. I certainly hold no interest for your audience – especially since I so rarely wear my pageboy cap.”

“You mean your Newsies cap.”

Darcy winces, but it’s a catalogued and precise manipulation of his features. “I prefer my descriptor.”

Lizzie grins widely, pulling her computer closer. “I guess we’ll just have to take this debate to the internet.”

 

XII

“I’m desperate.”

Darcy purses his lips. “I…must admit that I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

Lizzie sighs. “Gigi and Fitz were supposed to be in today’s video, but she had to go back to school unexpectedly, and Fitz bailed on me for some reason.”

Darcy thinks for a moment. “Oh, today’s Wednesday. Fitz goes out to lunch with his great-aunt every Wednesday whenever he’s in town.”

“Oh.” Lizzie frowns. Now she feels guilty about all the faux angry texts she sent him. “Well, I planned out the video and everything, and I have to film it today because I upload tomorrow, and I won’t have time to film anything because of that budget meeting tomorrow morning.”

“So you want me to appear in your video?”

Lizzie smiles as widely as she can possibly manage. “Would you?”

And that’s how Darcy winds up playing Mrs. Bennet in costume theatre.

Lizzie’s mom had called her the night before and asked exactly how long she had planned to stay. And then if she had met any potential husbands. And then why Lizzie would leave her all alone.

She feels a little awkward giving Darcy the script, considering his not-so-great opinion of her family, but he performs his part admirably. Actually, it might be a more accurate of Mrs. Bennet than Lizzie’s ever been able to achieve.

“Oh, my stars!” Darcy gasps in a high-pitched southern accent, clutching a hand to his chest. “Elizabeth Bennet, I do declare, if you leave home for good and go and work at that huge mansion, I swear, my heart will just _break_.”

“But Mom,” Lizzie says, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at his portrayal, “I like it here. And, as we’ve discussed many, many times, I’m still in school. I don’t know where I’m gonna work, so maybe we should all just calm down.”

The bit goes on for another few minutes. She’s been thinking since she finished the script that maybe she let it drag on a little too long, but she can always edit it down. And besides, she’s enjoying herself too much to bring it to an end.

But eventually, they get through everything she scripted, and even though Darcy goes off-script a few times and throws out a few lines that tie the whole thing together, the beautiful sight that is William Darcy with a fake southern accent comes to an end. He films her outro with her, and seems to be smiling as she turns off the camera.

“That was so great,” she says. “Thank you so much. I have a feeling I’m gonna get a lot of requests to make you do more costume theatre.”

“Well, I’m always game,” Darcy says, taking off the Mrs. Bennet hat. “Anything in the good name of YouTube.”

He turns to her, the shawl still wrapped around his shoulders. “How much of that conversation was accurate?”

Lizzie shrugs. “I mean, I always add in a few southern-isms, you know, just to add to the experience.”

“Sure,” Darcy says. “But the rest of it. Does your mother not want you to stay at Pemberley?”

She hesitates. “I mean. She misses me, yeah. Ultimately, she wants the best for me, she just…forgets that sometimes.”

“So she wants you leave,” Darcy clarifies.

“I – Yeah,” Lizzie says, rubbing the back of her neck. “Kind of.”

Darcy smiles humorlessly, staring at his hands. Then, slowly, he turns his head to her. “Do you want to go home?”

Lizzie forgets how to speak for a moment. She hasn’t thought about that at all, not since her first day at Pemberley. As soon as she sat down at her desk and got to work, she had felt so comfortable and welcomed that she had forgotten she had ever tried to get out of the project. No. No, she definitely doesn’t want to go home.

“No,” she says for the first time. “I like it here.”

 

XIII.

She’s not exactly sure how it comes up, but she happens to run into Darcy in the break room on the sixth floor of Pemberley, and she accidentally suggests to him that they should be friends.

As the shock wears off, she starts remembering more of it. Okay. So she was reaching for a cup of coffee…but he was reaching towards one of the cabinets…but then they both realized that they would be in each other’s personal space if they didn’t act, so naturally they jumped apart and wound up on separate sides of the room.

“Lizzie,” Darcy says in that familiar way. She used to think he sounded stiff when he said her name, but now that she knows him better, she can hear the welcome in his voice. “Er. How are you? I hope your day’s been enjoyable.”

“It’s been great,” she says, twisting her mouth into a smile. “I think I’m going out to lunch with Gigi, actually, if you’d like to join us.”

His eyebrows twitch. “That’s – very kind of you,” he says. “But I’d hate to impose.”

She can tell he’s surprised. She’s surprised, too – she has no idea where that came from. But she finds herself wanting him to say yes. She and Darcy have been spending time together every so often, and it’s sort of enjoyable, actually.

“It’s not an imposition,” she says. “Really, we’d love for you to join us.”

Both sides of his mouth quirk up, which she thinks is the William Darcy equivalent of a smile. “Very well,” he says. “Then I look forward to it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she says, bowing a little. They’re silent for a moment, sizing each other up. Lizzie bites her lip, worried he’s going to think she’s making fun of him. But then something wonderful happens.

William Darcy giggles.

 

XIV.

It hits her in the middle of the night. Darcy, Gigi, and Lizzie have been getting lunch together every day for a week, and in that week, Lizzie has seen Darcy laugh and actually enjoy himself more times than she can count. He’s actually fun to be around. She looks _forward_ to being around him.

She thinks – maybe they’re friends.

She thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs, rolls over, and falls back asleep. There are worse things than being friends with Darcy.

 

XV.

“Costume theatre was a hit,” Lizzie mentions to Darcy as she passes him in the hallway. “There have been requests for a repeat performance.”

“Never,” Darcy responds immediately. His lips twitch.

 

XVI.

Dinner at the Darcys’ turns into a tour of their townhouse, which turns into Gigi and Darcy taking turns sharing their favorite childhood memories. The three of them squeeze onto the loveseat in their parents’ office, and Gigi puts her feet across Lizzie and Darcy’s laps and it all feels so familiar. She feels like she’s spent a thousand nights just like this, and she wants a thousand more.

 

XVII.

“It’s too bad William couldn’t join us,” Gigi says ruefully as they sit in their favorite booth at the Italian restaurant down the street from Pemberley. “You know, he’d never admit it, but I know he looks forward to these lunches. He doesn’t get out of the office much, you know? He’s always thinking, and he forgets to slow down unless I make him.”

“I know the feeling,” Lizzie says. “The first few months I was making my videos, when Jane was still home and Charlotte hadn’t started working at Collins & Collins, all I would do was talk about my videos. Ideas for things I could do in the future, questions about what was and wasn’t working…I think they were ready to strangle me for a few weeks. But after a few weeks of some dramatic eyerolls from Lydia, I realized that I needed to live in the moment and actually pay attention to the people around me.”

“Exactly!” Gigi says. “That’s always been William’s problem. These past few weeks have been the first time in a while that I’ve actually seen him interested in other people. I guess he’s warming up to his company.”

Lizzie sighs because she knows it’s expected of her, but she’s gotten used to Gigi’s not-so-subtle hints. Gigi glances at her to gauge her reaction; when she sees Lizzie’s smile, she leans a little closer.

“And maybe his company has started warming to him?”

Lizzie picks up a menu and busies herself with reading it, even though she’s gotten well-acquainted with it over the last couple weeks. “Lizzie,” Gigi sing-songs, poking Lizzie’s arm. “Come on. You can tell me. That’s what friends are for, right?”

Normally she never rises to Gigi’s bait, but she’s so touched by the younger girl referring to her as a friend that she can’t help but throw her a bone. “All right,” Lizzie says, placing the menu on the table. “I can admit that maybe…Darcy isn’t as awful as I once thought.”

Gigi squeals. “Good enough! I have to text Fitz.”

 

XVIII.

She gets a text from Jane one day that confuses her so much, she has to close her computer and set her phone down on the desk just to think about it.

_Hey Lizzie! I just wanted to see if you were available to talk this weekend, maybe Saturday?_

(That’s not the confusing part.)

_I’d love to hear all about Pemberley, and how your research is going. I’ve been watching videos when I can – you look happier than I’ve ever seen you! Love you!_

Now, Jane is an excellent judge of when someone’s happy. Not just when they’re in a good mood, or when they’re sufficiently full after an excellent meal. No. The eldest Bennet knows when someone is fulfilled. When all the pieces in someone’s life have fallen together, and even the pieces that can’t quite fit don’t seem so distracting thanks to the beautiful harmony of everything else.

Lizzie’s never thought about how she’s felt since coming to Pemberley. Sure, she’s been excited to go to work every day, and getting to meet new people in such a different environment has been amazing. And, yeah, she supposes that, if she thought about it long enough, she’d realize she was fulfilled. She just didn’t know why.

Someone knocks three times on her door. Lizzie turns around just in time to see Darcy stick his head in. “I was on my way to the break room,” he says. “Would you like me to grab you anything?”

Oh. Of course. “No thanks,” she says. “I’m good.”

 

XIX.

On their way out of a board meeting, Darcy grazes Lizzie’s elbow. He’d never grab it, of course. He’s far too polite for that.

“I hoped that was of interest to you,” he says. “I’m not exactly sure what sorts of things you’re most invested in at Pemberley, but –“ He hesitates. “If you’d, um, like more time to find your niche, then. I could probably get the boss to sign off on it.”

Lizzie beams. She’s long past the days of thinking of him as a robot, but it still brings her indescribable joy when Darcy makes a joke. “Are you asking me to stay on longer?”

He tucks in his chin. “If that’s – I mean – I just wanted you to know that, if you desired to do so, then the option is available to you.”

She hugs her notebook to her chest. “I mean, I’m not sure how much time I’ll need to kind of put all my notes together, but once I’m done with my thesis…”

Darcy nods. “Of course. This conversation is premature. I apologize.”

“No, don’t.” She touches his arm. “I appreciate it.”

This time, she doesn’t pull away.

 

XX.

Charlotte emails her every day or so, mostly just to see how Lizzie’s doing at Pemberley. Lizzie wishes her best friend could be closer so that they could see each other more often, but they get to talk often enough that she doesn’t feel a huge gaping hole where Charlotte should be.

And besides, sometimes she says things like, _You sound like you’ve settled in really well. Any chance you might want to stick around Pemberley? I’m sure a place like that has tons of benefits – an interesting field, challenging work…an interesting and challenging CEO to divert your attention…_ and Lizzie can’t really remember why she ever missed her best friend in the first place.

_Ha ha,_ Lizzie writes back. _Yes, Pemberley’s great. And Darcy is…agreeable._

She bites her lip, staring at her blinking cursor on her computer screen. Agreeable? No, he’s so much more than that. She’s come pretty far these past few months, and making her videos has taught her a lot about herself. Most importantly, she’s seen how stubborn she can be, and she’s tired of being unable to admit when she’s wrong. So, no, Darcy isn’t agreeable. She deletes the line and starts over.

_Pemberley’s amazing. And yes, Darcy’s certainly challenging. And definitely interesting. And you know what? He’s a lot of fun to be around. I’d love to work at Pemberley after I graduate._

 

XXI.

“Jane!” Lizzie cries into the phone. “I can’t believe it’s you! How are you?”

“I’m good,” her older sister says, sounding so close and so far at the same time. “Um, Lizzie, listen. There’s something you should know…”

“What’s up?” Lizzie asks, laying down on her bed. “Was there a big fashion emergency in L.A.? Sorry, I know I sound facetious, but really, I do want to hear about it.”

“Have you been watching Lydia’s YouTube videos?”

Well, that’s unexpected.

“Uh, no,” Lizzie says, frowning. “We haven’t exactly spoken much since before Christmas. Why?”

“I just.” Jane sighs. “I’m worried about her. George doesn’t seem…I – I don’t know. You knew him better than I did, but I’m not getting a good feeling from her videos.”

Lizzie sits up. “George Wickham? He’s in Lydia’s videos?”

An hour later, she’s all caught up on her little sister’s videos, and she wants to throw up.

They both agree it’s best if Lizzie doesn’t reach out to Lydia. She wouldn’t appreciate it considering how they left things, and with everything George has been saying about their relationship…It’s best if Jane’s the eye to keep an eye on things. But before they hang up, Lizzie makes Jane promise to keep her updated. And, for once, she promises herself to stay updated on Lydia’s vlogs.

 

XXII.

Fitz wants them all to play mini-golf.

Basically, Fitz is an asshole.

Of course the three of them are amazing at it, because surely they all had golf lessons growing up, while Lizzie struggles, to put it charitably. By the eleventh hole, she’s clearly way behind everyone else’s scores – Gigi, Fitz, and Darcy have all managed to get a 2 or 3 on each hole, while Gigi politely suggested they stop counting Lizzie’s strokes at 5. They’ve stopped counting on every hole.

“Hey, you know what I think the problem is?” Fitz suggests as they patiently wait for Lizzie to get her ball out of a sand trap. “I think your grip is messing you up. Hey, Darce, maybe you can show her the right way to hold the club.”

Lizzie glances up just in time to see Darcy glare at his friend. “Lizzie’s grip is fine,” he says. “Just some bad luck, I’m sure.”

“No, no,” Fitz says. Gigi loops her arm through his. “Come on, just show her. No harm in it, right?”

Darcy sighs. “Look, Lizzie.” He holds out his golf club and grips it. His words are stiff, but Lizzie knows that’s not intended towards her. “And that’s how you hold a golf club.”

Lizzie holds up her own club. “Thank you, Darcy. I think I’ve figured it out, though, Fitz.”

Gigi giggles. “Uh, yeah, I don’t know,” Fitz says. There’s laughter in his voice. “Darcy, maybe you should, you know, show her. Up close.”

Lizzie wants to swing her club over her head and bring it down on Fitz’s skull. But since that would probably be rude, she does her best to swallow that urge. 

“Come on, William,” Gigi says. “It could only help, right? Not that you need help,” she adds quickly, turning to Lizzie.

Darcy sighs. “I’m sure I hold no knowledge of any subject from which Lizzie could benefit.”

“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Fitz says cheerfully. Clearly, he’s not going to let this go. Lizzie throws up her hands in frustration. Her club falls into the sand.

“All right, fine,” she says. “Show me how to hold a freaking golf club.”

Darcy sets his own club on the ground, then walks over to her. Lizzie grips it like she would normally. He comes up behind her and grabs the club just under her hands. She can tell he’s taking great care to ensure their bodies aren’t touching; only their arms brush against each other.

“Perfect,” he says, the word so close to her that she absorbs it. Then he clears his throat and moves away from her. “As I suspected, Lizzie’s superior intellect ensured that she was holding it correctly. As I suggested, perhaps she’s just encountering some bad luck.”

He bends over and picks up her ball, then places it on the green, just outside of the sand trap. “That would normally cost you a stroke,” he tells Lizzie. Then he bends closer, his lips brushing her ear. “But I won’t tell if you won’t.”

 

XXIII.

Lizzie’s never been in love before.

Of course, she’s not in love now. That would be insane.

But the thing is, all those movies Jane made her watch when they were in middle school always said that when you’re in love, it hits you out of nowhere. Everything would be fine, your life would be normal, and then one day, one otherwise ordinary day, you’d wake up and realize that someone you see every day has suddenly become the most important person in the world.

That’s dumb. Lizzie knows that.

And yet, one day, one very normal day, she wakes up and takes a shower and gets dressed and goes to Pemberley and Darcy sticks his head out of his office to wave hello to her and she’s all of a sudden very aware of her heart. And then she thinks, _“Oh. There you are.”_

 

XXIV.

She gets a call from Jane as she’s on her way back from lunch. It takes a while for Lizzie to calm her older sister enough to figure out what’s going on.

Ten minutes later, she’s packed up her desk and Charlotte is en route. Gigi and Darcy wait in the lobby with her, both of them stealing glances at each other when they think she’s not looking.

It’s fine. She knows that her problems aren’t really things people like the Darcys would ever encounter. What Wickham did to Gigi was a blip. What he did to Lydia is harsher, and so much more permanent. Gigi and Darcy got past the wedge Wickham had driven between them. Lydia might be forever marred, and the Darcys just don’t know what a dark mark like that looks like. They shouldn’t have to.

When Charlotte gets there, Gigi insists on walking Lizzie out to the car, which means she drags Darcy along with her. The two girls hug, and Gigi makes Lizzie promise to keep her updated, and to come back as soon as possible.

Darcy twists his mouth into a smile. “It was a pleasure having you here, Lizzie. You’re always welcome at Pemberley, should you ever desire to return.”

A few weeks ago, a comment like that from Darcy would have put Lizzie in an amazing mood for the rest of the day. Or it at least would have made her smile. But now, all she hears is him saying goodbye. He’s being polite, as always. He doesn’t want her around. He can’t, not after this.

Charlotte drives away slowly, much to Lizzie’s chagrin. She wants to get away from Pemberley and the Darcys as fast as possible. But at the speed they’re going, Lizzie can’t help but look out at the grounds and wonder what might have happened if she were able to stay. She liked Pemberley. She had started to think that maybe, once she graduated, she could stay…

But that’s silly. She knows that. Lizzie Bennet is never returning to Pemberley Digital, and she’s certainly never going to see William Darcy ever again.


End file.
